Tartarin on the Alps

Alphonse Daudet (1840 -1897) was a French novelist. His first job was as a schoolteacher in the south of France. He hated this work and soon left to live with his brother. Tartarin On The Alps was written in 1885. Tartarin of Tarascon is the first volume of what was to become a trilogy, with the two later volumes, Tartarin on the Alps (1885) and Port Tarascon (1890). An excerpt about this Alpine adventure reads, "Naturally the curse of Costecalde is Tartarin. So much fame for a single man! He everywhere! always he! And slowly, subterraneously, like a worm within the gilded wood of an idol, he saps from below for the last twenty years that triumphant renown, and gnaws it, and hollows it. When, in the evening, at the club, Tartarin relates his encounters with lions and his wanderings in the great Sahara, Costecalde sits by with mute little laughs, and incredulous shakes of the head."